Peyton Manning: NFL Hero or Lowlife Sex Offender?

Like hundreds of million people around the globe, my wife and I watched Super Bowl 50. We both rooted for the Broncos to win. I was pleased with the outcome for the simple reason I’d always respected Peyton Manning as a player and, especially, as an elder player. I forgave his comments immediately after the game, tacky though they were, about drinking some Budweisers after kissing his wife and their kids, and thanking God. The NFL has a policy about their athletes plugging alcoholic products, but apparently looked the other way given that Manning owns stock in two Anheuser-Bush distributors in Louisiana.

Carolina quarterback Cam Newton got the lion’s share of post Super Bowl press for his poor sportsmanship behavior in defeat. Newton is young and has yet to learn, perhaps because he’s always been a winner, how to be gracious in defeat. Whether he never makes it back to the Super Bowl, perhaps in a few years, after he’s matured, he’ll look back and regret his actions.

But then the news broke: thirteen years ago, USA Today obtained court documents on Peyton Manning, his father Archie, the University of Tennessee, and Florida Southern College that revealed allegations of a sexual-assault scandal with a female trainer, and its subsequent cover up and smear campaign of the victim.

Today I’m wondering why USA Today never released those documents.

After paying off the young woman, they each signed a non-disclosure to never speak of the incident, Manning wrote about the incident in his 2003 book Sports Great Peyton Manning. He downplayed the incident, calling it horseplay. But he went further, labeling the victim as foul-mouthed, intimating that she was trailer trash, as if that justified his actions. His credibility is now in question in light of the fact that no other athlete has ever spoken of the woman as anything but professional.

Now if any mere mortal was found guilty of such “horseplay”, they’d have been fired and likely be required to register as a sex offender. Yet Manning has enjoyed the notoriety of being one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever take a snap from center. Furthermore, he’s parlayed that notoriety into being a spokesperson for Nationwide Insurance, DirecTV, and Papa John’s Pizza.

Only time will tell whether Manning will follow Subway spokesperson Jared Fogle, who Subway dropped after allegations of sexual improprieties.

Which begs the question: Did Manning get a pass from the NFL?

Given that Michael Vick, Adrian Peterson, and Ray Rice were held accountable for, respectively, a dog fighting ring, child abuse, and spouse abuse—as was NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell—I’d say, resoundingly, “Yes!”

Immediately after the Super Bowl I was happy for Manning, and wished him well, hoping that he’d retire from the game a winner.

Today I’ll forever look at his “aw, shucks” demeanor in his T.V. ads as a lie, a façade behind which he hides what he really is: a sex offender who was never held accountable for an unforgiveable act he defines as “horseplay.”

Photo Courtesy: Dailynews.com